A BOMB disposal team yesterday made safe a Japanese wartime bomb which could have brought death and destruction to a Mongkok street. The 50-kilogram phosphorus explosive device - which is banned under the terms of the Geneva Convention - was discovered by builders on a construction site on Anchor Street at about 11 am. Bomb disposal officer Dominic Brittain and his sergeant, Wong Kwok-fai, discovered the main charge had exploded when it was dropped by a Japanese plane in 1941 but that not all its lethal ''cargo'' of phosphorus had dissipated. The street and nearby flats and shops were evacuated while the officers isolated and burnt off the toxic and highly flammable chemical. Mr Brittain said the bombs were designed to disperse phosphorus, which would burn anything with which it came into contact. The gases the combustion produced could be lethal. ''One lungful could wipe you out, especially if you were young. It is extremely toxic. If you are burned by the phosphorus and you live, you would be scarred for life. The bomb is designed to spread phosphorus. It burns into your skin and doesn't stop burning even when it gets to your bones.''
